A blood sample for use in laboratory testing is typically obtained by venipuncture, which extracts blood from a subject's vein into one or more sealed vials or tubes. Unfortunately, currently available testing techniques often require a rather substantial volume of blood, sometimes extracting multiple vials of blood from each subject.
Because of the blood volume associated with traditional testing paradigm, the cost and logistics of transporting samples from a collection site to an analysis site can be substantial. The blood volume used for traditional testing also puts additional requirements on cooling the samples during transport so that sample integrity is not impacted due to thermally induced sample degradation. The traditional testing paradigm further requires that collection sites be staffed with skilled technicians that can reliably perform a venipuncture on a subject. Because of the high costs associated with the traditional paradigm of blood sample collection and testing, conventional laboratory testing is often not cost efficient, only available at select test locations, and unable to unburden itself from the substantial sunk costs of existing testing infrastructure.